MRSA: Political point-scoring over hospital cleanliness ignores the real issue
...r John Reid is now considering proposals to charge hospital bosses with corporate manslaughter if patients die...A have occurred simultaneously with outsourcing of hospital cleaning staff--providing circumstantial evidence of a link. Importantly, however, comparisons with ...British hospitals need clinical ethicists
...hough these provide a valuable service in drafting hospital policies and helping doctors resolve ethical dilemmas, most are ill suited to respond to the immediate problems that doctors encounter in their daily work. In contrast, many hospitals in North America have full time clinical ethicists as well as clin...Study shows promise in identifying kidney failure
...eks. Five percent of all patients admitted to the hospital and 30-50 percent of those in intensive care units will have kidney failure. In these cases, 50-80 percent of people will die. The current gold standard in diagnosing kidney failure (serum creatinine measurement) leads to a diagnosis one to three da...New study in 'Nature' demonstrates protection against cell death during heart attack
...ording to Dr. Molkentin. "When a person comes to a hospital and it's realized that he or she is having a heart attack or stroke, one of the first things done is to re-establish blood flow," says Dr. Molkentin. "At this point, cells have not yet died. But when flow is re-established there is a huge burst of ...Do minorities survive hospitalization better than others?
...e incidence of DNR orders in a large population of hospital patients. When sex and ethnicity differences in th...se with a DNR were more likely to die during their hospital stay. Writing in the article, S. Claiborne Johnston, MD, PhD, writes, "Non-Whites were less likely t...Pitt marks 50th anniversary of its Salk polio vaccine with reunion, scientific symposium
...t as lucky, who got polio and had been confined to hospital wards, some in total isolation from their parents, or handicapped by leg braces until they learned to walk again, have shared longer stories, including how they now cope with the effects of post-polio syndrome. Friends, neighbors and colleagues of Sa...Organizational traits associated with quality patient care are essential to home care nursing
... nurse work environment on patient care outside of hospital setting. The study, "Organizational Attributes Valued by Hospital, Home Care and District Nurses in the United States and New Zealand," is featured in the first quarter issue of the Journal of Nursing Scholarship (volume 37 issue 1) published in late...Hospital acquired infections present major problem for infants in developing countries
Rates of neonatal infections in hospital born babies are up to 20 times higher in developin... major causes of neonatal infections and deaths in hospital settings. Unhygienic conditions prevailing in hospitals of developing countries mean that babies bor...Vaccine against childhood pneumonia shows promise
...m of bacterial infection, can substantially reduce hospital admissions and improve the survival of children in...ed by chest x-ray by 37% and reduced admissions to hospital by 15%. Disease caused by the types of pneumococcus bacteria in the vaccine was lowered by 77% and ...NHS target driven culture is failing patients
...bes the fragmented care of an elderly woman at his hospital whose death from kidney failure (super-imposed on a malignancy) could have been avoided. "The hospital care was spread across three sites, delivered by six teams and by numerous members of within each te...New studies suggest airborne SARS transmission is possible
.... Another study, from Hong Kong, shows patients in hospital bays near a SARS patient had a much higher infecti...the SARS virus in the air of an infected patient's hospital room. The authors cautioned that their results do not document any cases of airborne transmission of...UNH launches 2nd spinout company with NIH grants
...e it fit into a cabinet small enough so that every hospital with an MRI unit could have one," said Hersman. "The challenge is to bring everything together into a small space without the three magnetic fields involved interfering with one another." UNH has already filed for three patents based on Hersman's in...ESC releases the first European Guidelines on Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI)
...he treatment of choice in patients presenting in a hospital with PCI facility and an experienced team. 7. Patients with contra-indications to thrombolysis or no signs that thrombolysis is working within 4560 minutes after administration should be immediately transferred for PCI, as this might be their only ...WISE study starts in Toulouse: 60 days of bed-rest for terrestrial female astronauts
... in the clinical research facility at the Rangueil hospital in Toulouse, France. WISE needs 24 female volunteers altogether, who will remain in bed for a total duration of 60 days. The test subjects will be divided into three groups of eight. One will be the control group, receiving no extra stimulus over t...Use of inhaled corticosteroid led to fewer hospitalizations for young children with asthma
... initial therapy had to visit an ED or stay in the hospital at least once during one year of follow-up, compared to nearly 30 percent who had nebulized ICS as a secondary treatment, and 40 percent who took it as a third line treatment. "Pediatric patients who were prescribed nebulized ICS earlier in treatme...Pushy parents can be bad for their children's health
...e. Twelve families made a formal complaint to the hospital or their MP about some aspect of care. Despite the fact that psychological factors are known to have a role in this condition, only 13 families accepted referral to psychological services. In 12, a significant degree of family conflict/dysfunction an...Hospitals may now be more willing to partner up with former adversaries
...ositive perceived impact of QIOs on the quality of hospital care. Their findings suggest that QIOs have overc...oviding educational materials, benchmark data, and hospital performance data. The majority of respondents, sixty percent, rated QIO interventions as "helpful" ...Strengths and failings of U.S. health care 'system' are driven by embedded vested interests
...re, comparisons between managed care chains versus hospital chains, and clinical practice guidelines after a public backlash against managed care. The researchers detail the ways in which organizational, cultural, and professional forces shape the health and medical markets, even as corporate interests transf...Obtaining patient consent for clinical audit is unworkable without extra resources
...iven, such as age, illness severity, and length of hospital stay, were also assessed. Consent was obtained for...rivation but was better for those who had a longer hospital stays and was worse for older children. The extremely low refusal rate suggested that parents were w...Yale authors raise concerns regarding regionalized heart attack care
...e more than 80 percent of patients who arrive at a hospital with chest pain symptoms aren't experiencing a hea... and increased costs resulting from a reduction in hospital competition in the cardiovascular procedure market. Authors include Rathore, Epstein and Krumholz a...